Crime in Los Angeles, not as bad as believed

[KnoxTown]

I'm more worried about some idiot hitting me on the road, then any crime here.

[Crotonapark]

Originally Posted by missionhome

The new 2008-2009 CQ Press Most dangerous cities in America report came out like two days ago. Here is how Los Angeles area cities did compared to the nation. The rank is from most dangerous to least dangerous. I am only posting select cities for comparison.

1. New Orleans
3. Detroit
4. St. Louis
5. Oakland
12. Baltimore
17. Compton
21. Washington DC
22. Philadelphia
34. Dallas
35. San Bernardino
65. Phoenix
95. Inglewood
100. Boston
102. San Francisco
108. Pomona
114. Hawthorne
118. Lancaster
126. South Gate
129. Denver
150. Carson
153. San Antonio
158. Los Angeles***
161. Long Beach
165. Seattle
184. San Diego
211. Santa Ana
(Out of 385 cities)

Southern California cities ranked as top 50 safest:
2. Mission Viejo
11. Irvine
12. Lake Forest
13. Chino Hills
18. Thousand Oaks
30. Glendale
31. Simi Valley
32. Huntington Beach
37. Orange
40. Santa Clarita
45. Newport Beach
50. Rancho Cucamonga

Good point proven about neighborhoods/cities in the LA area! Their crime stats are not considered in LA crime stats here and shows how big a difference there is between the different parts of a city. I mean there is more crime in Watts, LA than it would be in Pasadena, LA!

People often underrate crime in major "safe" cities because their overall crime rates, but that's not right! NYC, "the safest big city in America" is overall very safe, but if you "stumble" into East Harlem or South Bronx or any other bad hood in NY you will encounter crime!

Don't always look at the big picture!

[Island_OnThe_Land]

Yes, we have seen a major drop in crime in the LA metro over the past 15 years. That said, these "comparison" lists can be very misleading.

Most of the crimonologists who study crime trends point out that many cities REPORT crimes DIFFERENTLY or more SPORADICALLY than other cities. So City A may report ALL types of violent crimes while City B does not report that type of crime at all. This makes these types of comparisons very sketchy at best.

Last but not least, if you are gonig to compare one area to another, it is BEST to look at the entire COUNTY or METRO area. That way small high-crime pockets won't skew the statistics. That said, I think ALL cities/regions report homicides so if you were to compare "murder rates" (and not the more general "violent" crime rate) it probably would be a reasonable comparison.

Nonetheless, it is GOOD NEWS that the LA crime rate has dropped sharply over the last 15 years.

[graciously]

according to local news channel seem like all major crime categories dropped at least 5 percent to 14 percent for some from what remember thats for now.

[whiskeycat]

Just depends where you live, I was van nuys and it's not good and the area just north of there is even worse. Panorama City and North Hills has a gang problem.
The problem with Van Nuys are the half way houses or so called sober living houses.
They are nothing but flop houses for the bums in this area.

And then there are the homeless, they hang out here because there are churches and places where they can go to get free food. We used to leave our bathrooms open in the building at night (these are business suites) so the homeless could use them, but not anymore. They come in here and break things and leave a big mess so we lock them now.

Walking around these streets you see all kinds of old junk and tv by the curb. People don't seem to take any pride in their neighborhood.

but the area just south of us Sherman Oaks is really upscale and clean.